We suggest a centralized facility for submitting to journals—one that would benefit scientists and not only publishers.

By Robert Montgomerie and Tim Birkhead | May 10, 2017

“We envision a single web page where we could submit all manuscripts for publication to any reputable journal. Each manuscript would receive a unique identifier, and the following very few boxes to fill: ORCID or ResearcherID identifier for each author, abstract, cover letter, and a short list of potential reviewers. And maybe a few tick boxes signifying author agreement, ethics, and regulatory compliance. A single PDF of the manuscript and supporting material could be uploaded and a journal chosen from a drop-down list. Presumably, such a centralized facility could also be used for distributing manuscripts for review, and would serve the added benefit of a “paper” trail for different journal editors to follow the rejection history of any manuscript, possibly even sharing reviews.”